US President Donald Trump has pardoned his former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani as well as several others involved in efforts to overturn 2020 election, a Justice Department official says.
Mr Giuliani was formerly the mayor of New York and Mr Trump's personal lawyer until he was disbarred last year.
Justice Department Pardon Attorney Ed Martin posted on social media a signed proclamation of the "full, complete, and unconditional" pardon, which also names conservative attorneys Sidney Powell and John Eastman.
The proclamation was posted online late Sunday and explicitly said the pardon did not apply to Mr Trump.
In a proclamation with Friday's date on it, the US president said the move would end "a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 presidential election and continue the process of national reconciliation," according to a document posted on X by Mr Martin.
Mr Trump himself was indicted on felony charges accusing him of working overturn his 2020 election defeat, but the case brought by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith was abandoned in November after Mr Trump's victory over Kamala Harris because of the department's policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.
Presidential pardons apply only to federal crimes, and none of the Trump allies were charged in a federal case.
But the move underscores Mr Trump's efforts to continue to rewrite the history of the 2020 election he lost to Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Also pardoned were Republicans who acted as fake electors for Mr Trump in 2020 and were charged in state cases of submitting false certificates that confirmed they were legitimate electors despite Biden's victory in those states.
Another key figure on the list was Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who championed Mr Trump's efforts to challenge his election loss.
Mr Giuliani and others who were named in the proclamation had been charged by state prosecutors over the 2020 election, but the cases have hit a dead end or are just limping along.
A judge in September dismissed the Michigan case against 15 Republicans accused of attempting to falsely certify Mr Trump as the winner of the election in that battleground state.
The proclamation described efforts to prosecute those who were involved in the 2020 election schemes "as a grave national injustice perpetrated on the American people" and said the pardons were designed to continue "the process of national reconciliation."
The White House didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Monday, local time.
ABC/Wires
